Weather

Can’t complain about today – we had plenty of sunshine along with more seasonable temperatures!

Highs Temperatures Wednesday

We’ll actually trade highs in the 60s for highs in the mid-70s on Thursday. But of course with the warmer weather, comes the wetter weather – Thursday will not be a washout, however there will be some scattered showers.

Future Trak Forecast 12 PM Thursday

You can see our Future Trak Forecast shows some splashes of green indicating that 4 in 10 chance for a shower. Don’t be surprised if you hear a few rumbles of thunder – there could be an isolated thunderstorm or two tomorrow afternoon. It’s possible a thunderstorm could produce some gusty winds, so we’ll keep an eye on conditions! Showers aside, expect partly sunny skies with temperatures warming into the mid-70s.

High Temperatures Thursday

Even though temperatures will be well into the 70s, it’s not going to be humid since dewpoints will only be in the mid to upper-50s.

Scattered showers will continue through Thursday evening. By Friday morning, a cold front will approach Hampton Roads, so that will give us the best chance for widespread showers with embedded thunderstorms.

Future Trak Forecast 7 AM Friday

Make sure you grab an umbrella before you head out Friday since the whole day looks a bit messy. Expect intermittent showers throughout the day with an occasional thunderstorm. No strong or severe storms expected.

Future Trak Forecast 12 PM Friday

In the wake of that cold front, temperatures will initially start in the low-50s Friday morning, then gradually fall into the low-40s by your evening commute.

Brace yourself for this next sentence.

With some moisture in the atmosphere and temperatures near freezing, it’s possible we could see some showers and/or flurries Saturday morning.

Yep.

IF you see flurries, don’t worry, the ground is too warm for anything to stick! I know it’s a jagged pill to swallow, knowing we could from 70s to flurries in just 48 hours!

I am ready for some warm air. Luckily…it’s here…starting today. At least for a short while. We started with temps in the low 40s this morning with lots of clouds in the region. I saw a sprinkle or two on the radar, but there wasn’t much with that. High pressure was slowly edging away from us to the northeast while a warm front was closing in from the southwest.

Satellite/Radar

The warm front will lift through late in the day. This will bring us a few more sprinkles, but it will also warm us up. Winds will be light and ENE this morning. They will turn more out of the southeast through the late afternoon. Skies will go between partly to mostly cloudy. With the occasional breaks in the clouds we should manage to warm up to the upper 50s to low 60s. There will probably be some mid 60s over North Carolina. Tomorrow we’ll be in the warm sector. Remember, that is the area south of the warm front and east of the cold front.

Tomorrow’s Forecast

Temperatures will get to rise up to the mid 70s in many locations. We’ll see scattered showers at times with isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. It won’t rain the whole day though. There will be some time when you can get outside and enjoy the warmth. Winds will run out of the south at 10-20mph. By tomorrow evening the strong cold front will move in from the west. We’ll actually see the rain pick up behind the front. So as the air cools on Friday, we’ll see scattered to occasional rain showers. A huge upper level trough will ride in behind the surface cold front late Friday into Saturday morning. If some moisture lingers, like the models are showing, then we’ll have a chance for some flurries and/or mixed precipitation Saturday morning. Maybe even a light snow shower or two. This will greatly depend on the amount of moisture around. The models disagree on this feature. At this time no model has any big snow in the region or even moderate snow. There’s still some time before we get there. I would bet that the air will modify a bit before it drops this far south. So the models may start to reflect that in some of the short-term updates. At this time it looks like temps will start in the low 30s in the morning and will only top off in the low 40s Saturday afternoon. We’ll be dry and chilly on Sunday. We’ll start in the 30s and highs will be in the 40s once again. It will be warmer into early next week.

Before I go I wanted you to see a couple of really cool things. First off…early this month there was a waterspout which made it onto a beach in Brazil. It really whipped things up as it moved onshore. I’ve never see a video like this. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0GuRSwtMvo

Also, I found this recent article about the northern lights. It is a timelapse of several auroras around the world. Here is that link: http://mashable.com/2015/03/17/aurora-display/

Enjoy!

It’s really cool that we get to see things recorded like that. It is a lot more prominent now that most people have smart phones that can take video.

It’s a bit draining to deliver the message. Another cold day, another rainy day, etc. Don’t get me wrong. We’ve had a couple of nice days here and there. But we haven’t had a decent stretch of mild/dry weather in a while. This is the time of year when we get antsy. We hear that it’s officially Spring, so our minds tend to think that it should just automatically warm up. That’s usually not the case here in this region though. We’ve had plenty of cold Marches, and I remember snow in April during the past 10 years. 2007 comes to mind, and I think we had some in either 08′ or 09′ as well. It is possible to see some flurries in our forecast this weekend, but it’s still a bit early to call that.

First let’s talk about today. We have an area of high pressure in the region, but we did have a weak mid-level disturbance bring a few sleet pellets and flurries early this morning. That has pushed out to sea now.

Satellite/Radar

We’ll be partly cloudy to mostly cloudy today. There will be a breeze out of the northeast, but it won’t be as strong as yesterday. It will also try to turn a little more from the east. Highs will be in the upper 40s. There will probably be a few 50s inland. In the mean time there is some heat building to our west. Look at the forecast high temperatures from the GFS model today:

Forecast High Temps

Highs will be in the 50s, 60s, and 70s (orange areas) to our southwest. This heat is ready to move into our region. Tonight that move will start to happen. We’ll still be cool here with lows in the 30s, but temps may rise a bit overnight. There will be some scattered showers caused by overrunning. Tomorrow the winds will be more out of the east/southeast. So we’ll warm up to the upper 50s to low 60s. A few of the rain showers will linger into tomorrow morning, but they should move out by the mid morning hours. So Wednesday afternoon should be fairly nice. The winds will be stronger and more southerly on Thursday. A warm front will have moved through the region. So high temperatures will make a run for the mid 70s. While the temps will be awesome, the rain chances will also be up. So we’ll see scattered showers through the day with some thunderstorms even during the afternoon. A strong cold front will move through by Thursday evening. Then cold air will keep pouring-in into Friday. Highs will be in the low 50s (which isn’t too bad), but temps will keep dropping. We’ll be in the low 30s by Friday night. Then highs will only be in the low 40s on Saturday. Now there will be some scattered rain showers again on Friday. Then on Friday night the temps will drop enough to produce a few flurries or sleet pellets. This will be along with some spotty showers. The jetstream will take a large dip (trough) over our area. So this will help to produce a little bit of precip. The models don’t show much at this time, but it will be something to watch.

We’ll dry out for the rest of Saturday into Sunday. We’ll still be chilly on Sunday with highs in the 40s again. This is important because there are some Eastern egg hunts already this weekend. So check back for updates to the timing of the precip as well as the temps.

Spring officially began Friday night…so it should be getting warmer right?! Well, not yet! Don’t put away all of your winter clothes, because the unseasonably cooler weather is going to stick around for a few days. The reason…the weather pattern. There has been a dip in the jet stream across the Eastern half of the U.S., which correlates to temperatures below average. We will eventually see a warm-up by the middle of the week, but it will be extremely short-lived.

The clouds will move back in overnight and the northeasterly winds will pick up in speed as a storm system passes to our south. Most of the rain will stay to our south, but we can’t rule out the chance for a few showers moving across the Outer Banks tonight/early Monday morning.

Rain Moving East

Rain chances are small because we are very dry at the surface, but some of the hi-resolution computer models have some light rain developing from Kill Devil Hills down to Hatteras Island early Monday morning. Temperatures will only drop into the upper 30s and lower 40s by Monday morning with the increase in cloud cover. As that large storm system to our south moves offshore, the clouds will clear out from north to south across Hampton Roads Monday afternoon. It will stay cool with highs in the low/mid 40s along the coast with upper 40s inland.

Monday’s High Temperatures

A gradual warm-up is expected as we wait for our next cold front front to arrive.

Temperature Trend

Thursday will be the warmest day of the week, but you won’t be able to enjoy it because showers will develop along a cold front that afternoon. We may even see an isolated thunderstorm. Then it’s back to the cooler weather Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Highs this upcoming weekend will only be in the 40s! Right now, the computer models are hinting at the possibility of an area of low pressure developing along the front Friday into Saturday. If this pans out, then the rain will continue Friday and Saturday as well. Stay tuned for updates!

One last side note…a lot of folks have been wondering if we are frost free? My answer to that is no, not yet. I know many of you want to get outside and start planting in your garden. There is still a chance temperatures could drop to 32° this week, so some of your sensitive plants could be damaged if planted too early. Here is a map that shows the average date of the last frost across Virginia and North Carolina.

Average Date of the Last Frost

Remember these dates are just averages. That means we could see frost and freezing temperatures after these dates too.

We’ll gradually see more and more peeks of sunshine as we head into the middle of the day. By Noon, expect plenty of sunshine with temperatures warming into the low-50s!

Future Trak Forecast 12 PM

With mostly sunny skies in the forecast through the afternoon, temperatures will eventually top out in the upper-50s, near 60°.. so a more seasonable Saturday on deck!

A quiet and quick-moving cold front will swing through the region overnight. I call it a quiet cold front because we won’t see many clouds or any rain from this frontal passage, but there will be a shift in the wind direction and cooler temperatures tomorrow.

If you’re going to be at the Shamrock Marathon tomorrow:

Shamrock Marathon

The half marathon will start at 7 AM, then the full marathon will start at 8:30 AM. It’ll be a little chilly with temperatures only ranging from the low to mid-40s for the duration of the race, so runners, you’ll want long sleeves..spectators, you’ll want a jacket! By the way, best of luck to all of the runners!!

Future Trak Forecast 12 PM Sunday

It’s all about where you are on Sunday – if you’ll be in North Carolina, expect more clouds..if you’ll be closer to the Northern Neck or the Eastern Shore, expect more sunshine. The Southside and Peninsula will be wedged right in the middle, so we’ll call for scattered clouds with highs only near 50°.

It’ll be even cooler on Monday, but cool air won’t last.

Next 5 Days

We’ll be tracking a warming trend next week. You can see highs will be back in the low-60s on Wednesday..then we’ll be talking about highs near 70° by Thursday! There will be a chance for some showers on Thursday, but the forecast can certainly change between now and then.

It’s funny being a meteorologist – we give you the forecast so you know how to dress and how to plan your week….yet, no matter how many times I repeat “it’s going to rain, it’s going to rain, it’s going to rain”, it doesn’t always register! Case in point – I paid to have my car washed 2 days ago..but I should’ve waited to get the free car wash courtesy of Mother Nature! (And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left my car windows open in the rain.)

Anyway..

FREE CAR WASH TODAY!!!!

Super Doppler 10 Radar

We’ll be tracking steady light to moderate rain through the morning hours. The steady rain will start to move out around Noon, then we’ll gradually see things dry up through the afternoon. I can’t rule out a stray shower or two through 3 o’clock, but most of us will just see mainly cloudy skies. Because of the rain and clouds today, it’ll be another cool day with highs only near 50°.

Future Trak 3 PM

The roads will be damp for your evening commute, but no more rain expected as you’re heading home from work.

We’ll have mainly cloudy skies through the evening hours, but the clouds will gradually dissipate and give way to mostly sunny skies by the time you wake up Saturday morning.

Future Trak 7 AM Saturday

Expect plenty of sunshine out there tomorrow with highs FINALLY back in the upper-50s, near 60°! It’ll be a great weekend for any outdoor activities you have planned. It won’t be as mild on Sunday, but at least it’ll be dry with highs in the low-50s.

Not too hot, not too cold for the runners and spectators at the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach:

Shamrock Marathon

Have a blast this weekend – Hope to see you bright and early Saturday and Sunday morning for WAVY News 10 at 6 AM!

I know it doesn’t feel like it, but it is the first day of Spring! This year, the vernal equinox takes place at 6:45 PM.

Vernal Equinox

The sun will cross over the Equator as it makes its way from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere. For places near the Equator, this will be the day they have 12 equal hours of day and night. Because of our latitude in southeast Virginia, we had close to 12 equal hours of day and night on March 17th and 18th.

The first day of Spring is rapidly approaching, but Old Man Winter isn’t ready to pass the baton just yet..

It’s going to be another cool day across Hampton Roads – expect partly sunny skies with temperatures only warming into the upper-40s, near 50°. (Our average high is 59°.) Most of the day will stay dry, but after 9 PM, we will start to see some rain showers developing – starting west and moving east.

Future Trak Forecast 7 PM

Light to moderate rain will fall through the overnight hours into Friday morning. It’s going to be a soggy start to your Friday, so make sure you grab an umbrella before you head out the door! We’ll pick up around a quarter of an inch of rain by 7 AM.

Future Trak Forecast 7 AM Friday

Rainfall Totals 7 AM Friday

Your umbrella will get quite a workout, since we’ll be tracking periods of rain from start to finish on Friday. The rain will start to taper off around 5 PM, but conditions will stay damp through your evening commute. Once this system moves out, we’ll be left with about .75″ to 1″ of rain across Hampton Roads and North Carolina. By the way, we will officially welcome Spring at 6:45 PM!

Rainfall Totals 7 PM Friday

The rain will move out of here in time for the weekend – great news for anyone participating in the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach!

Shamrock Marathon

Whether you’re running the 8K on Saturday or the half or full marathon on Sunday, expect perfect conditions with temperatures in the low to mid-50s..not too hot, not too cold for runners and spectators!

Temperatures will drop back into the mid-40s as we kick off the next work week on Monday and Tuesday. These slight temperature swings are pretty typical during seasonal transitions, so don’t surprised if you see highs in the 60s, then 40s, then back to the 50s over the next couple of weeks!

As expected, we were about 20-30 degrees cooler today as highs only reached the upper 40s and lower 50s across the region. Winter has returned and will not loosen its grip on Hampton Roads for at least the next 7 days. Temperatures are going to stay below the average of 59° thanks to a large dip in the jet stream across the Eastern U.S. So…don’t put the winter gear away just yet!

Wind speeds have finally come down and with mostly clear conditions, temperatures are going to drop quickly tonight. Lows will be in the low to mid 30s on average. With a deck of high, thin, clouds moving in after midnight, temperatures may actually rise a little bit into the upper 30s by Thursday morning. If you have any plants that are sensitive to the cold, bring them inside tonight. Not all locations will drop to 32°, but it will be close. The kids will need the winter coat and the gloves at the bus stop tomorrow morning.

Forecast Low Temperatures

I don’t think you will need to bring the umbrella to work with you tomorrow, since most of your Thursday will be dry. Expect increasing clouds with highs only in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Rain could move in anytime after 7 PM.

Future Trak at 7 PM Thursday

Rain will become more widespread Thursday night into Friday morning and could be heavy at times. Temperatures will be in the upper 30s Friday morning. It will be a chilly, soggy day with highs only around 50°.

Future Trak at 7 AM Friday

Rain should become more scattered Thursday afternoon and eventually taper off Friday night. Rain totals should range between 0.75 to 1 inch on average with higher totals possible across North Carolina. The weekend is looking much better…drier, warmer with more sunshine! Highs will be in the upper 50s on Saturday and mid 50s on Sunday.

Before I get to the weather of the day. I have to show you this great image:

Tower Cam This Morning

It’s ironic that the sky looked like it was on fire. Because the temps were down to freezing in some areas this morning. The wonderful warmth that we had yesterday is gone! Norfolk International Airport hit a high of 80 degrees. It felt so nice. Then the cold front moved through in the evening, and we’ve been cooling down ever since. As high pressure started building in last night the winds became very strong. When I came in there was a wind gust to 37mph in Virginia Beach. The winds have settled down since then, but the high continues to move closer to the region.

Satellite/Radar

We’ll see a lot of sunshine today, but high temperatures will only be in the upper 40s. Winds will be out of the north at 10-20mph. By tonight the high will sit right on top of us. We’ll see a little bit of clouds moving in from the west/southwest. Winds will be light. Where there is still clearing, the temperatures will drop down to the low 30s. Otherwise we’ll see lows in the mid 30s.

Tomorrow we’ll see quite a bit of clouds as the high slowly edges offshore. The rain should hold off through the day. We’ll see highs in the upper 40s. A weak area of low pressure will move into the region Thursday night into Friday. This will bring us a good chance for rain. It will be on and off through the day on Friday. Then the low will move out by the weekend. So Saturday looks pretty good. Partly sunny and highs in the upper 50s. However, more cool/cold weather will move towards the area from Sunday into early next week. Highs will be back in the 40s for a couple of days. Yep! Yesterday was just a taste of Spring, even though Spring officially starts on Friday. Sigh!

In international news… I found a really neat article that talks about how this year could break a record for the lowest maximum amount of sea ice in the Arctic. Arctic sea ice typically maxes out about this time of year, but this year it is running very low. This is interesting since the eastern U.S. has had a lot of cold air over the last 2 months. Here is the article: Possible record low-peak sea ice in the Arctic.